By Chris Shore

ROH Wrestling on SBG stations
Taped in Baltimore, Maryland

A video recapped Roderick Strong costing Michael Elgin his match against Adam Cole and the subsequent attack from the House of Truth...The opening video aired and Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness were in the ring. They hyped the final two matches for the March Mayhem tournament and setup the video that explained the rules of the tournament and showed who had entered and already won...

Backstage, Veda Scott was with the Embassy and started to ask Tomasso Ciampa about still not having returned the title belt he took from Jay Lethal March 4. Prince Nana cut her off and told RD Evans to do his job. Evans started to give a lawyer answer about pending legal issues, but Ciampa cut him off and said he didn't answer to Jay Lethal. He said the title was a trophy at his house that represented a year of total dominance. He said if Lethal wanted it back he should grow a pair and take it back...

1. Tomasso Ciampa (w/The Embassy Ltd) defeated Kyle O'Reilly in a March Mayhem qualifier at 7:48. Ciampa shoved O'Reilly instead of shaking his hand. They traded hammer locks, then did a test of strength and kicked each other with neither man giving. O'Reilly hit a northern lights suplex for one. He hit several kicks that Ciampa essentially no sold. Ciampa hit a belly to belly overhead throw and took control.

Ciampa tied O'Reilly to the tree of woe and hit a running knee after dropping the pad down for a near fall. O'Reilly reversed a rest hold into a suplex and went on attack. He set Ciampa on the top and hit a top rope back superplex. Ciampa no sold it and charged at O'Reilly. O'Reilly hit a weak tilt a whirl slam that Ciampa sold. Some serious ring psychology at work there.

O'Reilly did his thousand hand slap gimmick, but Ciampa hit a clothesline. Ciampa went for Project Ciampa, but O'Reilly slipped down into a guillotine. Ciampa powered him into a vertical suplex lift, but O'Reilly hit several knees to the head. Ciampa tossed him back and hit a running knee that knocked O'Reilly out. He jumped on him with punches, but referee Todd Sinclair stopped the match...[C]

Shore's Slant: Good match. The weird no selling of Ciampa is just that, weird. No selling is part of the ROH style, but this seemed strange with taking the huge bump from the top only to have a weak slam give us a false finish. Still, it was only one spot in what was otherwise a good match. The finish just shows ROH's continued fetish with all things MMA.

The announce team setup a video of Davey Richards. Davey said people have been coming to him looking for an answer to O'Reilly's actions. He said O'Reilly is a grown man, but not observing the code of honor does rub him the wrong way. He transitioned to saying he was going to kill the guy he was facing next...

2. Davey Richards squashed Ryan McBride in a proving ground match at 0:25. Davey attacked at the bell with a running forearm, knee lift, and running kick. He covered for two, and grabbed the ankle for the ankle lock and a quick tap...The announce team hyped Kevin Steen for next...[C]

Shore's Slant: The worst part of this match was Davey at the end raising McBride's hand to put him over. You just squashed him Davey, how much do you think raising his hand helps at this point?

Kevin Kelly was in the ring and introduced Kevin Steen. Steen made his entrance and Kevin Kelly said Steen requested the time and wanted to know what was on his mind. Steen took the mic and said he wanted a question answered, why couldn't he get a match. Kelly said he wasn't a ROH official, but he guessed it was because of Steen's reckless actions in the ring and continued assaults after the bell.

Steen said he though being a danger to his opponents was kind of the point of wrestling, and he wasn't a hypocritical piece of grabage who tried to break a guy's neck and then be all buddy-buddy afterward. He asked if he shook hands after a match like Davey Richards, would that be what it took to get a match. Kelly shrugged his shoulders.

Steen said he had had enough. He said he's been coming out for weeks and saying things to get Richards to come out but he wouldn't. He speculated why that was. He said it couldn't be a lack of pride, he knew Davey better than that. He said it must be because something or someone is holding him bag. He said maybe its because he can't hear him from the cauliflower ears he has from jiujitsu training. He said maybe he couldn't hear because his head was shoved too far up Jim Cornette's ass.

Davey Richards charged the ring with Cornette and others in tow. Davey got in his face and asked if Steen wanted to fight. Steen said as a matter of fact he did. The refs pulled Davey back and Cornette took a mic and told Davey to stop, that's what Steen wanted Davey to do. Davey grabbed the mic and said Steen wasn't a wrestler, he was a novelty act. He said he looked like he was in his thrid trimester and called him a fat ass. He said if Steen wanted to fight he would kick his ass all over the place.

Cornette told Davey Steen didn't want to fight, he just wanted to get him in the ring so he could screw the company over. Steen said if anybody was screwing the company over, Cornette should look at himself in the mirror. He said Cornette banned the piledriver because it was dangerous, but Richards broke people's ankles. Richards said for Steen to bring his piledriver and he would shove it up Steen's ass.

Cornette said Steen wasn't going to get in the ring with Davey until he earned it in the ring, not with his fat lying mouth. Steen said that was fine, Cornette could keep delaying it, but it was going to happen. He said it was nice to see Davey with a set of balls, and asked if they had been in Cornette's pocket. Davey punched Steen in the face. Steen laughed as the officials pulled Davey away and Steen left the ring by blowing a kiss at them...[C]

Shore's Slant: Holy crap, that was awesome. Every bit of it was. This also goes to backup what I said, ROH needs to pull the trigger on this and soon. I'm all for keeping guys away and building to something big, but after the mess this weekend they need something big to bring interest back. This would do it. Great, great stuff.

The Inside ROH segment aired. They recapped the Briscoes helping Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman beating WGTT. Jay Lethal cut a promo on Tomasso Ciampa taking his TV title belt. Here we have another problem with the time distortions caused by the ROH taping schedule...

3. Mike Bennett (w/Maria and Brutal Bob) defeated Eddie Edwards in a March Mayhem qualifier at 12:10. McGuinness said Maria needed two haircuts to wear what she's wearing. Hilarious. The match started with arm drags and running the ropes. Edwards tied Bennett to the tree of woe and hit a drop kick. He went for the baseball slide dropkick from the floor, but Maria stood in the way. Brutal Bob grabbed Edwards and dropped him on the barricade...[C]

Back from commercial, Bennett continued to work on Eddie's back. They showed a shot of Eddie's back where his back was cut from the barricade bump from Bob. Eddie started his comeback and hit a standing ranna. He whipped Bennett to the corner and hit a running chop, followed by a suplex. He hit the missile dropkick for two and continued to sell his back.

They played cat and mouse sliding in and out of the ring and Eddie hit a yakuza kick that knocked Bennett to the floor. He went for a dive, but Bob grabbed the leg. Eddie stomped his hand and then hit the dive on Bennett, followed by a dive on Bob. Bennett climbed the turnbuckle and Eddie ran over hit a throw.

Bennett went back to the top and Edwards tried for the backpack chin buster on the floor. Bennett shoved him away and hit a spear on the apron for two. Bennett put Eddie on the top rope for a superplex, but Eddie knocked him down. Bennett ran back up and tried again, but Eddie scooped him up and hit a fireman's carry drop from the second rope.

Bennett kicked out at two, but Edwards held on for the Achilles lock. Bennett flipped over and kicked him away. Eddie hit the ropes, and Maria stepped in front so they made contact. She paused for a moment, and then collapsed on the apron in pain. The ref checked on her while Eddie rolled Bennett up. Bennett tugged on the tights to reverse it and the ref turned around to count the pinfall. They showed a replay of the Maria incident. Nigel McGuinness said he had seen better acting on Red Tube, a porn site. Bennett and company celebrated the win to close the show...

Shore's Slant: Very entertaining match that you should try and catch. The Maria bit was well done in that it was cheesy and supposed to be. Edwards loses nothing here because of the interference, and Bennett continues to be built up. Next week's March Mayhem final four should be a lot of fun. Thanks for watching along with me today.

Questions? Comments? Anyone, anyone? Let me hear from you. Email me at css3238@gmail.com or tweet me @TheShoreSlant with whatever is on your mind.

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